After I work with my editor to get the manuscript in good shape, I sketch and lay out a whole book loosely, usually in black and white. You learn things about your text when you have to think about pacing and page-turns.
Characters are incredibly important, but I tend to build them around the plot during the outline stage. However, once I'm writing the manuscript, the characters I'm writing dictate how the plot unfolds.
I basically wrote five books with 'Night Soldiers,' called them novellas, and came in with a 600-page manuscript.
If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: 'Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press.'
J. K. Rowling's first 'Harry Potter' manuscript was rejected 12 times. Stephen King's 'Carrie' was rejected 30 times. 'Gone With The Wind' was rejected 38 times. I was immensely proud to have beaten them all.
So: we're all tired. Now what? Manuscripts written in Club Med?
Books can now be on the stands within days from delivery of a formatted manuscript, and often are.
Sometimes a manuscript is like bread dough. You have to abuse it.
I outline fairly extensively because I'm usually dealing with real events. I don't need to give myself as much information as I used to, but I still like to have two pages of outline for every projected 100 pages of manuscript.
Although no one loves a typo, it's close to impossible to eradicate every single little mistake in a manuscript.
